What is your most hated trope in manga right now?

[Erosiana]

When the MC has no special/distinguishable personality traits. Like you are staler than a piece of bread left in the desert for 400 years. No special interests, or interesting flaws. This applies to a good number of genres and manga, but specifically Romance and Isekai (yes nigga ik that isekai not the place for unique manga)

Another trope thats a little more niche but gets me more annoyed is when the MC is a complete creep. Its so weird and disgusting to me. Please have some common human decency.

 

[Dwarfy2k]

When the MC has no special/distinguishable personality traits. Like you are staler than a piece of bread left in the desert for 400 years. No special interests, or interesting flaws. This applies to a good number of genres and manga, but specifically Romance and Isekai (yes nigga ik that isekai not the place for unique manga)

Another trope thats a little more niche but gets me more annoyed is when the MC is a complete creep. Its so weird and disgusting to me. Please have some common human decency.

I'd also add to that they look super average too, usually with a neutral face at all times too and tend to not show/have emotions when stuff goes down.

 

[KajurN]

I can't stand any more of the "My party got rid of me because they think i'm useless but i'm actually super OP. They can't do anything without me" As well as pretty much every single other isekai trope around. Just nobody mentioned that particular one yet.

Isekai as a concept can be done well, and there's quite a few good ones, but lately feels like all we're getting are these unoriginal trope riddled recycled bland GARBAGE. You know the kind i'm talking about, the manga equivalent of a shovelware game, zero literary value and you read one you read all of them, they're like that homework meme where the guy asks their classmate to change it a bit so it doesn't look like they copied them. They have zero soul, you can't feel any passion from the artists/writers, they're just hustling trying to make money off the Isekai fad rather than make something good.

It's a bit of a rant, but i miss back in like 2009-2014 before isekais got big and it seemed like there were a lot more quality manga being published. Maybe it's nostalgia/selection bias and these isekais are now being translated more often than the other stuff. Heck, there's a few successful and decent isekais that i know which aren't being worked on but the crappy ones are everywhere, and it's frustrating.

 

[cksn]

definitely not slavery, which is clearly just a way to satisfy everyone's desire for premodern marriage.

what's uninteresting and just strange is the sex role inversion thing with man and woman going through romantic tropes in the opposite roles. it'd be ok if it were just a setup to be resolved later, but it's usually never resolved.

 

[Erosiana]

I can't stand any more of the "My party got rid of me because they think i'm useless but i'm actually super OP. They can't do anything without me" As well as pretty much every single other isekai trope around. Just nobody mentioned that particular one yet.

Isekai as a concept can be done well, and there's quite a few good ones, but lately feels like all we're getting are these unoriginal trope riddled recycled bland GARBAGE. You know the kind i'm talking about, the manga equivalent of a shovelware game, zero literary value and you read one you read all of them, they're like that homework meme where the guy asks their classmate to change it a bit so it doesn't look like they copied them. They have zero soul, you can't feel any passion from the artists/writers, they're just hustling trying to make money off the Isekai fad rather than make something good.

It's a bit of a rant, but i miss back in like 2009-2014 before isekais got big and it seemed like there were a lot more quality manga being published. Maybe it's nostalgia/selection bias and these isekais are now being translated more often than the other stuff. Heck, there's a few successful and decent isekais that i know which aren't being worked on but the crappy ones are everywhere, and it's frustrating.

Isekai is cooked. Same world, same monsters, same nigga wit black hair and a black cloak. One good one is Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau - Highserk Senki (https://mangadex.org/title/418be4a0...nigoru-hitomi-de-nani-wo-negau-highserk-senki) and some other gems ive found along the way, but all in all, isekai niggas make the same 3-5 stories that have a "different theme" (my party got bombed by Bush and i got super hax op)

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

I personally loathe a concept I call "False Underdogs" which are those "Oh, I get called a shit but I'm actually overpowered which I hide in order to play in the lower weight-classes" characters.
These fuckers are honestly despicable for me. If you want your character to be an underdog, actually make them one!

Also all those characters that commit mass murder because a different character, in relative terms, slightly inconvenienced them. Especially if they do this not-fun edgelord thing of also destroying their soul for real banal shit.
Bonus points if they aren't getting the consequences of being treated like an utter psychopath by everyone else, but even praised for it.

 

[Unregistered_Hypercam]

This is another set of tropes I absolutely loathe that I’m noticing more.


That trope where it’s a Rom-Com/Romance series and the MC and Main girl are always together and the guy is an absolute wet noodle while the girl is all but basically begging the guy to fuck him. It can be done well if the MC is a good foil to the Main Girls flirting and teasing but it’s so damn annoying after the 80th time you see it.

Seinen series where every other chapter has rape or alluded to rape in it. Looking at Redo of Healer with that one specifically since it felt like every other chapter had that specifically.


Fantasy series where it’s a case of heroes having to defeat some variation of the “Evil Demon King”. I rather much enjoy a fantasy series that doesn’t have the same copy paste BBEG that’s just some evil demon lord in a crown and cape. Like make it so it’s just an evil church or cult. Make it so it’s an evil monster that needs to be slain, but drop the whole evil demon lord trope for a BBEG stuff.


Power Ups/Forms/Upgrades being powerful in their debut only to get curb stomped in the next arc. You can see it with Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball, etc but I’m really tired of the tried and true method of showing how strong the evil guy/faction of the arc is by showing them steamrolling the heroes recent power up. Hell you can see it outside of manga with Kamen Rider in how a couple episodes ago the riders new form was able to dog walk the monster and main villain but the form is extremely nerfed within the next few episodes.

 

[OisE]

Maybe it's nostalgia/selection bias

 

[Darksnider05]

Isekai Mc's from earth that go along with slavery or morally dubious stuff when they legitimately know better. The paper-thin excuses for that kind of behavior just sour me on characters so fast.

 

[Hobnobs]

Cookie cutter character archetypes, no really, a lot of manga being produced now have characters that are so unbelievably generic, trying their hardest to copy other characters in a 1:1 fashion. And to add an extension to that, the most generic looking male MC's that are made of cardboard because it's "supposed to be a wish fullfillment fantasy for the reader" or some other nonsense like that. This trend chasing, take no risks, safe & generic, probably think-tanked by a robot to satisfy the highest ratio gross revenue to effort garbage is destroying artistic creation & it needs to stop. It ain't just a problem for manga, it seems to be an issue surrounding entertainment as a whole.

Love triangles that aren't actually love triangles. I don't get this, why are most "love triangle" manga labeled as such when they aren't love triangles? Sorry but I don't acknowledge the following formula being representative of a love triangle:
Person A > Person B
Person C > Person B
No really, there are 3223 different manga/manhwa/manhua on mangaupdates with the tag, and I can assure you, that most of them follow the formula above. What I consider to be a love triangle is as follows:
Person A > Person B
Person B > Person C
Person C > Person A

"Strong female lead" main characters, let me explain, it isn't the character itself I have a problem with, it's the male lead that follows if the story either has romance as a main plot or a minor plot, the issue then becomes 1 of 2 things. 1, "strong female lead" gets downgraded into useless nitwit that needs the male lead to save them all the damn time. 2, the male lead(s) devolves into nothing but a whimpering melodramatic purse puppy that is more akin to a pet than a love interest. Why can't we just have both strong leads without the obligatory, incredibly forced savior arc, that, regardless of who has the leading role, the other character in distress always appears to be written OOC or the plot has to reach really hard to put that character in that situation and you're sat there thinking, well, this is bullshit. This only come across as disrespectful to the character and I don't know how to describe how I feel about it. It's like when you have a cross-over between 2 different shonen series and these 2 main characters who are considered bad-asses in their own respective universes, get into a fight, except, there's just one problem; in one corner, you got your high school delinquent with a chip on his shoulder, and in the other corner, you have this dude who is literally an ultra-godlord god-slaying, multi-universal busting doomslayer, and they have to make the fight look even so it just feels like you're watching a grown-ass adult who injects steroid recreationally, play pretend fighting with make-a-wish special needs toddler and try to convincingly lose.

 

[Dwarfy2k]

Spoiler: -snip-

Cookie cutter character archetypes, no really, a lot of manga being produced now have characters that are so unbelievably generic, trying their hardest to copy other characters in a 1:1 fashion. And to add an extension to that, the most generic looking male MC's that are made of cardboard because it's "supposed to be a wish fullfillment fantasy for the reader" or some other nonsense like that. This trend chasing, take no risks, safe & generic, probably think-tanked by a robot to satisfy the highest ratio gross revenue to effort garbage is destroying artistic creation & it needs to stop. It ain't just a problem for manga, it seems to be an issue surrounding entertainment as a whole.

Love triangles that aren't actually love triangles. I don't get this, why are most "love triangle" manga labeled as such when they aren't love triangles? Sorry but I don't acknowledge the following formula being representative of a love triangle:
Person A > Person B
Person C > Person B
No really, there are 3223 different manga/manhwa/manhua on mangaupdates with the tag, and I can assure you, that most of them follow the formula above. What I consider to be a love triangle is as follows:
Person A > Person B
Person B > Person C
Person C > Person A

"Strong female lead" main characters, let me explain, it isn't the character itself I have a problem with, it's the male lead that follows if the story either has romance as a main plot or a minor plot, the issue then becomes 1 of 2 things. 1, "strong female lead" gets downgraded into useless nitwit that needs the male lead to save them all the damn time. 2, the male lead(s) devolves into nothing but a whimpering melodramatic purse puppy that is more akin to a pet than a love interest. Why can't we just have both strong leads without the obligatory, incredibly forced savior arc, that, regardless of who has the leading role, the other character in distress always appears to be written OOC or the plot has to reach really hard to put that character in that situation and you're sat there thinking, well, this is bullshit. This only come across as disrespectful to the character and I don't know how to describe how I feel about it. It's like when you have a cross-over between 2 different shonen series and these 2 main characters who are considered bad-asses in their own respective universes, get into a fight, except, there's just one problem; in one corner, you got your high school delinquent with a chip on his shoulder, and in the other corner, you have this dude who is literally an ultra-godlord god-slaying, multi-universal busting doomslayer, and they have to make the fight look even so it just feels like you're watching a grown-ass adult who injects steroid recreationally, play pretend fighting with make-a-wish special needs toddler and try to convincingly lose.

Yeah I see too many series that say Love Triangle and it won't even have what you say it'll be:
Person A<>B love each other
Person C is just there and is just a friend to one or both A/B

This is always so annoying cause then you sit there thinking "Is this going to go NTR or something later?" as it makes no sense for the triangle tag.

To add to your FMC talk, I really hate in general isekai main leads outside of the MC( either female or male) cause what inveritably happens is cause they are almost always harems the harem members start off strong, well characterised and engaged into the plot..... until they have the character story arc then after that they become background characters that become 1 dimensional and usually not even lines of dialogue anymore so that a new girl can get screen time. This problem even happens in the reverse harem genre so it seems to be like a editor thing I'd assume?

 

[Hobnobs]

To add to your FMC talk, I really hate in general isekai main leads outside of the MC( either female or male) cause what inveritably happens is cause they are almost always harems the harem members start off strong, well characterised and engaged into the plot..... until they have the character story arc then after that they become background characters that become 1 dimensional and usually not even lines of dialogue anymore so that a new girl can get screen time. This problem even happens in the reverse harem genre so it seems to be like a editor thing I'd assume?

It doesn't help either if you have too many main characters, there is only so much characterization you can fit into the panels/screentime, add too many characters and eventually, outside of their perspective lore or character building arcs, they often tend to become cardboard (flanderized) caricatures of their former selves. Look at One Piece as an example, whenever the whole crew is together in one place, this issue occurs. Compare that to how it used to be when the crew was smaller or when an arc is specifically focusing on 1 or a few select characters. My poor boys Chopper & Franky have been sidelined & designated to "just exists to sell toys" for most of the series.

 

[2SpiritCherokeePrincess]

"Yes, you may have committed crimes against humanity & ruined the lives of millions, but now losing to the main character has made you see the error of your ways. So we'll forget your victims & their devastated loved ones; welcome to the team my new best friend!"

 

[Dwarfy2k]

"Yes, you may have committed crimes against humanity & ruined the lives of millions, but now losing to the main character has made you see the error of your ways. So we'll forget your victims & their devastated loved ones; welcome to the team my new best friend!"

Oh and "Everyone easily forgives said heinous crimes"

 

[Unregistered_Hypercam]

"Yes, you may have committed crimes against humanity & ruined the lives of millions, but now losing to the main character has made you see the error of your ways. So we'll forget your victims & their devastated loved ones; welcome to the team my new best friend!"

“Yes you’re the evil tyrant who razed a entire city because you felt like it. Yes you clearly are wearing armor reminiscent of a demon and yes you’re clearly at my mercy because I, The MC, bested you in single combat through the power of friendship but lemme talk to you for about 5 chapters about why you can still be good even though just earlier you were enacting a genocide of every sentient species in the story say for your faction.”

“Oh I, the evil monster tyrant, bested by the main character and his friends now realize the error of my ways and wish to instead stop this genocide and repent by being betrayed by my advisor who actually was the truly big bad evil guy and I was just the puppet. Now I must fight alongside the heroes and sacrifice myself in hopes of redeeming myself even though I’m legitimately evil.”

 

[Kaisermutt]

As title, whats your most hated trope in manga right now?

For me it's defo gotta be having the love interests being slaves and keeping them as slaves especially when they become lovers....

It's just feels so wrong and feels out of character "Oh I love you.... your still being my slave though screw giving you freedom."

I 100% agree, I get why sad lonely people like the idea of a romance where the other person can't go "I'm tired of your bullshit, bye", but the fact that it finds its outlet through slavery is really really creepy

 

[Nemo2342]

Another one for the pile:

With rare exceptions, I absolutely hate it when the conflict/drama is based around something that could be solved with 2 minutes of conversation. Authors please find a more interesting way to set up some tension instead of wasting 10 chapters on the MC freaking out over something they saw/heard but refuse to ask about.

 

[Hitspark]

When the author creates a plot hole because they want to give a backstory to something it doesn't need. Case and point, naruto.

It was stated Naruto got the Uzumaki name because they were scared he'd be hunted due to his connections to minato. This is dumb because the boy's last name is Uzumaki, and it's revealed the Uzumaki were so feared that they were hunted to near extinction. Naruto and Karin being the only known survivors.

So let me get this straight. It's bad to name him Naruto Namikaze because he could be targeted by some random political faction (in his own land)...BUT THE ENTIRE ARMY OF PEOPLE THAT SLAUGHTERED YOUR WIFE'S FAMILY IS A BETTER OPTION!? It's not even that hard to figure out anyway. The only Uzumaki in the village was Kushina and she was widely known to be married to Minato. So I'm expected to now believe that no one looked at the blond boy named Uzumaki (Uzumaki are supposed to have red hair) and not think "Ah that must be Minato's kid"? What's even worse is that we had 2 characters with this exact same situation and neither of them needed that treatment.

Naruto did not need a clan and we didn't need an explanation on why he wasn't named after his dad. This was a ditch you didn't need to dig because you're never gonna explore it ever again. Come on, Kishimoto.

 

[Keepbro]

The one that annoys me a lot!!

When the (usually female) main lead serves up a meal that is either a steak or an omelet and the guy (usually a guy) eating it breaks down and goes OH MY GAWWD THIS IS THE FABLED FOOD OF THE GODS LAST SEEN IN THE EIZO ERA WHEN DIVINE AND DEMONIC BEINGS WALKED THE LAND

I read one manga where some chick got challenged to a food cook off by a royal chef and she cooked a bouillabaisse stew whilst the Chef - someone who works for very powerful people who have the ability to have him killed for serving them a shitty dish by use of hand gestures - ends up charcoalling a fish and sprinkling some rock salt on it.

The best part is is that his food is served first and everyone watching goes "OOOOOOHHH" like it's some sort of Robuchon inspired gastronomic miracle instead of the war crime against ocean life that it actually is.

It just makes me wonder if theres an isekai dimension where the food isnt actually terrible and where someday some generic hero will serve an eggy rice omelet thing to someone and just get told "mehhh" or they'll be offended that he put ketchup on it....

 

[Amphguy]

Boring/plain male leads. It's definitely not a trope limited to manga, but it irks me every time. I would rather the narrative follow someone who is actually interesting, someone who isn't just a blank slate for the audience to project onto to fulfill some sort of power fantasy. It's definitely more common in romances, but i can excuse it there, since that's kinda the point of romance as a genre (romance novels for example tend to have very generic female leads), and it's a genre that I don't read much of regardless. A lot of what I find appealing in manga is the characters, and a generic main character feels like a wasted opportunity or copout a lot of the time.